Maple is a big sister and starts a big-girl school. Willow is a little sister and has to stay at home. Maple brings home endless exciting stories about kindergarten. Willow has to learn to have fun around the house by herself. Maple makes new friends at school, Willow meets Pip by an oak tree. Now Willow has stories to share too. As the girls learn to build their separate routines, they realize that they miss each other and find a way to reconnect and share their new worlds. Willow might be too small to go to school with Maple, but Pip isn’t.

Yesterday was my son’s last day of the summer vacation. However nervous he felt this morning when I dropped him off at school, I am positive that when I pick him up, he will be bursting with excitement. I’m sure that his younger brother, a preschooler, will notice the difference between the summer with his brother and the fall without him. And that’s why we will read the story of Maple and Willow tonight, to remind my boys that they should never allow the school routine to drift them apart.

“Maple and Willow Apart”, with its sweet pencil illustrations, is certainly a heart-warming celebration of the sisterly bond. And it is a wonderful book to read at this time of the year, to prevent the school-separation drama.